How thick should I cut cookies?

[Merlin]

Hey everyone,

I picked up 12 rounds of red oak from a tree removal. The tree had some rot on one of the limbs about 15' up and ran down the tree a fair bit. The tree was over 4' in diameter, so the tree company cut them up into 25-30" chunks. 
I will have to cut one side of the round so I can fit it on the mill so it will be about 32-35" across, but I'm not sure how thick I should cut these? Or should I even bother to cut them into cookies. I do not need more firewood, so figured I could try and make some cool outdoor tables.
Any help is appreciated.

[Brad_bb]

I'm afraid the answer is - cut them to the thickness you will need plus a bit more to account for warpage and flattening.

[Southside]

Are your plans for immediate use or long term?  Red oak loves to check when in cookie form so be prepared for "character" cookies that will likely need some work later on.  For sure it can be a beautiful piece of wood, but likely someone will need to spend some time to make it so.  

[doc henderson]

3 " plus

[scsmith42]

What Doc said.
Red oak cookies tend to split as they dry, so plan on some losses.

[doc henderson]

i did some 30 inch x 1 inch oak, and they all split to the center and turned black.  stickered and air dried.  could have completer the split and jointed them and glues back.  the larger diameter the more stress and therefor the thicker the cookie.  trial and error.  some other threads with tricks, like denatured alcohol ect.

[Merlin]

Thank you guys for the advice. I was thinking in the 3" range and will probably go about 3.5". The rounds have been cut for over two years but have been up on my hay wagon. The bark is slipping now and I hope to get a chance to cut a few of them in the next few days. It's just that the sun is shining so, need to make hay.

I'll get some pics of the before and after and post hopefully by the weekend.

Again, thanks for the advice. I wasn't sure if there was some type of ratio of width to thickness.

[burdman_22]

A rule of thumb* is about an inch of thickness per foot of diameter.

*This rule of thumb was made up by myself and my brother, haha, but it always seems to be about right for our purposes.

[Brad_bb]

I've cut some cookies, but never made anything with them yet.  Why couldn't you just cut a pie wedge cleanly where it checks, and use a sacrificial cookie to cut a corresponding pie wedge to glue in there?  Should nearly blend in/disappear, at least better than the check?

[DPatton]

Or fill the check with an epoxy. I've seen some pretty nice looking rounds used as table tops that had the checks filled with colored epoxy.

[doc henderson]

If you take a wedge or even half for that matter, from the very next cookie, should match well.  like book matched slabs.

[Larry]

I've cut some cookies, but never made anything with them yet.  Why couldn't you just cut a pie wedge cleanly where it checks, and use a sacrificial cookie to cut a corresponding pie wedge to glue in there?  Should nearly blend in/disappear, at least better than the check?

Doc Gene suggested this method years ago and it does work well but its hard to get the pie wedge to fit perfect.

Doc henderson just suggest cutting two half's from adjacent cookies.  I think I like that idea even better.  That way I can run the half's across the jointer and get a perfect cut for the glue up.  I'm going to try that.

[doc henderson]

I did that on a bench I made for a fund raiser.





just did the edge but looks good.  

[Merlin]

Hey all,

Got a chance to get one on the mill. Got the bark off and cut it with the chainsaw to fit. It's about 33" wide and about 45" long. 
There are a few soft spots but we will see how they turn out. 
I ended up cutting them 3" thick. 
I have them sitting on my log deck stickered for the time being out of the sun. 
Anything specific I should do with these to dry that is different than drying lumber? 
Out of the sun in a fairly windy area?
Thanks as always.